Sunday, June 25, 2006

Joe Biden's Putdown of Dick Cheney

Via Atrios, we have this comment from Joe Biden on Wolf Blitzer's show on CNN:
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The worst possible thing we could do is what the Democrats are suggesting, and no matter how you carve it, you can call it anything you want, but basically, it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight.
BLITZER: All right. You want to respond to the vice president, Senator Biden?
BIDEN: No, I don't want to respond to him. He's at 20 percent in the polls. No one listens to him. He has no credibility. It's ridiculous.
Atrios's take on Biden:
That's a good response from Biden, and it's the same response Democrats should be making not just for anything that comes out of Dick Cheney's mouth but anything which comes out of George Bush's mouth.
Way to go Joe.
BushCheneyRove have been spouting the same nonsense for more than four years now, and it's getting old. What's changed is not the country's collective stomach for a fight, but the country's stomach for this fight--a fight they chose for us and has little to do with the forces that attacked us in 2001, WMDs or any credible threat to the United States.

3 Comments:

Blogger Paul Smith Jr. said...

Someone's popularity has nothing to do with whether they're right or not. Think of Harry Truman. Not even Nixon sank as low in the polls as he did. (A fact that still amazes me.) Doesn't mean everything he proposed was wrong.

This is just a cheap shot and something our senior Senator should be above.

10:49 AM, June 27, 2006  
Blogger Tom Noyes said...

No Paul, I don't agree Biden's comment was a cheap shot.

Consider what Cheney said: Democrats who talk about withdrawal are "validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight."

Our problems in Iraq are not due to any lack of intestinal fortitude, but to a lack of judgement on the part of Bush and Cheney.

It has been 1,750 days since 9/11 and 1,153 days since "Mission Accomplished" day. In contrast, WWII lasted 1,365 days, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to Japan's signing of the instrument of surrender on board the USS Missouri.

Despite Cheney's complaints, Americans have not lost their stomach for a fight--I doubt that will ever happen. What has happened is that, after more than three years, a victory strut on an aircraft carrier and an endless barrage of talking points about critics lacking the stomach for a fight, Americans are losing their faith in Bush and Cheney and their conduct of this war.

Despite their precipitous drop in public support, Cheney continues to repeat the same old line. Biden was right when he said no one listens to him.

11:46 AM, June 27, 2006  
Blogger Paul Smith Jr. said...

Nothing you said contradicted my point: his popularity rating does not mean he's wrong; it just means people don't buy it.

The rest of your argument may well be true, but Biden didn't say that; he just dismissed him based off a popularity rating. That's not engaging the facts.

9:50 PM, June 27, 2006  

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